Kabylia celebrates Yennayer

2009-01-12

The people of Kabylia, alongside other Algerians, celebrate the advent of Yennayer in ways old and new.

By Kaci Racelma for Magharebia in Algiers – 12/01/09

[Kaci Racelma] Many Amazigh children receive toys or wear masks as part of traditional Yennayer celebrations.

Every year, the Tamazight-speaking community in Algeria celebrates Yennayer, the first day of the agricultural calendar used by the Amazighs since the dawn of time. This date corresponds to January 12th on the Gregorian calendar.

In Kabylia, Yennayer is taken as a public holiday, even though it is not designated as such by law. Since the Amazigh spring of April 1980, the Amazigh Cultural Movement (MCA), which is fighting for the recognition of Kabyle culture, has been asking unsuccessfully for it to become a public holiday in Algeria.

In Kabylia, Yennayer 2959 [corresponding to the Amazigh Calendar] is celebrated with all due recognition. It is a special occasion marked by copious meals and symbolic rituals. In just about every village, the heads of families will sacrifice a cockerel for the occasion.

Traditional dishes, which vary from one region to another, are prepared. For Kabyles, it is often couscous with dried meat (aqedidh), shared by the whole family.

If the children refuse to eat, old women will threaten them with supernatural stories, such as that of the ogress (Tarayel) that will cut open their stomachs and stuff them with food.

Ninety-year-old Nna Zahra, who lives in the Yakourène region, told Magharebia that "he or she who does not eat their fill on that day will never be satisfied for the whole year", adding that "it's the same with people's moods, because every person must be happy to avoid being sad throughout the whole year."

As families gather around their traditionally-prepared couscous, pride of place is given to the spoons and plates of those who are absent: sons in exile or married daughters. Children are given new clothes to wear as a sign of joy and celebration.

The first Yennayer following the birth of a boy is of great importance to many Kabyle families. The father trims the child's hair for the first time, and marks the event by purchasing a cow's head. This ritual, it is still believed, is a foretaste of the child's future responsibilities.

Yennayer, derived from Yiwen wayour (the first of the month), continues to stand the test of time as an ancestral tradition passed from one generation to the next.

"There's no big difference between how this month was celebrated in the past and how it’s celebrated today," said Ouardia Beddek, a lady in her eighties from the Ouadhias region of Tizi-Ouzou.

"The difference lies in the resources used," she added. "In the past, you would cook over a wood fire, but now you cook over gas. The children's toys have also seen changes, because in the past it was the parents themselves who would make them."

Cleanliness is also an important part of the tradition. On the eve of Yennayer, the lady of the house cleans all the nooks and crannies throughout the home.

Saïd Chemakh, a sociologist and lecturer at Mouloud Mammeri University in Tizi-Ouzou, said that Yennayer is a "peasant and agricultural rite which has existed since ancient times. Since the 1970s, the Amazigh academy has surrounded it in folklore and attributed it to the Amazigh king Chachnak who, it is claimed, defeated [Ramses III]." "Yennayer," he added, "is even celebrated in Arabic-speaking regions such as Tlemcen and Tissemsilt, where masked celebrations are still held."

The masks symbolise the return of the unseen spirits to Earth.

In Kabylia, in olden times, the children would disguise themselves with self-made masks and run through the village streets and alleyways under the watchful eye of old women, who would bestow blessings upon them.

Today, the people celebrate in new ways, such as the Miss Kabylie beauty pageant in Tizi-Ouzou, or the conferences and exhibits held in Bejaïa, alongside film and theatre productions.